Aon Disaster-Risk Detection Patents Withstand Motion to Dismiss

Zesty.ai Inc. failed to convince a federal judge to cut short a lawsuit by an Aon Plc unit alleging infringement of patents that claim analyzing aerial imagery using artificial intelligence to assess natural-disaster risk.

Zesty had argued four Aon Re Inc. patents are invalid as they cover the abstract idea of using images to measure property risk, but Judge John F. Murphy disagreed. He rejected Zesty’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit Tuesday, allowing the case to proceed to discovery. In doing so, he distinguished the suit from an April Federal Circuit opinion that held patents that merely apply well-known machine ...